1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a testboard for an IC tester and, in particular, to a testboard for an IC tester which connects an IC tester and an auto-handler.
2. Background Art
Testboards for IC testers conventionally comprise a base unit and a DUT unit as shown in FIGS. 7.about.9 and are used to connect an IC tester and an auto-handler. FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the conventional art and FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the view from the direction of arrow VIII of FIG. 7. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the view from the direction of arrow IX of FIG. 7.
In FIG. 7A, the test circuit 2 for testing the device 14 being tested is loaded onto pincard 1. A single device 14 being tested corresponds to two pincards 1, and the test is conducted by means of assigning signals to each of the pins PIN1.about.PINn of the device 14 being tested using the IC tester of a configuration comprising the timing generation circuit t1, pattern generating circuit t2, format control circuit t3 and driver comparator circuit t4 shown in FIG. 7B.
A first connector 3 which is connected to test circuit 2 mounted on pincard 1, and first connector 3 is fitted into second connector 4 which is mounted on the bottom surface of base card 5 in the manner indicated by arrow C in FIGS. 8 and 9.
Housing 7 is mounted on base card 5 and third connector 8, which is fitted onto the pins 6 of the above-mentioned second connector 4, is held on housing 7 as shown by the arrow B in FIG. 8 and FIG. 9.
One end of a cable 9 is connected to each third connector 8, and the other end of cable 9 is connected to fourth connector 10. As shown by the arrow A in FIG. 8 and FIG. 9, fourth connector 10 is fitted into a fifth connector 11 which is mounted on socket board 12, and the device 14 which is being tested is mounted on IC socket 13 which is connected to fifth connector 11.
In addition, as shown in FIG. 8 and FIG. 9, a harness 15 is formed by a plurality of cables 9 and housings 7, and a base unit 16 is formed by means of base card 5 and a plurality of harnesses 15. Furthermore, a DUT unit 17 is formed by means of a plurality of socket boards 12.
Then, by means of the above structure, DUT units 17 can be prepared for each type of device 14 being tested corresponding to the type of test, and when changing the type of device 14 being tested, the DUT unit 17 is exchanged by removing the DUT unit 17 from the base unit 16. In addition, when it is not possible to obtain correspondence by means of the above-mentioned method, the connection of the third connector 8 which is held in the-housing 7 with the pins 6 of the second connector 4 can be changed. On the other hand, when maintenance is conducted on pincard 1, base unit 16 can be separated from pincard 1.
In the above-mentioned technical art, for each device 14 being tested there are two housings 7, and there are thirty-two third connectors 8 arranged adjacently in single file on each housing 7. Consequently, when the IC tester has a configuration in which the test circuit 2 corresponding to each device 14 being tested comprises a small number of pincards 1, since completion can be achieved by means of a small number of housings 7, construction of the harness 15 and the base unit 16 is easy, and assembly of the base unit 16 is also simple.
However, when the IC tester has a configuration in which the test circuit 2 corresponding to each device 14 being tested comprises a large number of pincards 1, the number of housings 7 also increases in proportion to the number of pincards 1. Consequently, the number of housings 7 increases, construction of harness 15 and base unit 16 becomes complicated and, furthermore, the assembly of the base unit 16 becomes difficult.